Read ME Agriculture
March 17 - 21, 2025
Interested in being a Volunteer Reader? Register to volunteer below!
Soil & Water Conservation Districts across Maine collaborate with Maine Agriculture in the Classroom all year long, but for one special week each spring, volunteer readers bring a specially chosen ag-themed book into PreK - 4th grade classrooms.
The 2025 program, which runs March 17 – 21 during National Ag Week, features the book Farmer Eva's Green Garden Life, written by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and illustrated by Christy Hale. The author grew up on a farm in Maine, and farmer Eva is a real New England farmer from Massachusetts. Every classroom that participates will receive a copy of the book and an accompanying educator's guide, with aligned classroom activities and resources.
Classrooms may choose their own reader or request a volunteer reader. To best serve the hundreds of classrooms that participate in Read ME each year, the 2025 program will continue to be a hybrid model where classrooms may opt for either an in-person or a virtual volunteer visit. Teachers may register their own classroom, or schools may choose a single point-of-contact to register multiple classrooms.
Please register by Monday, January 20, 2025* and we will contact you by email to coordinate a reading in your classroom! *we acknowledge this falls on MLK, Jr. Day
Questions? Contact cindy@knox-lincoln.org
Farmer Eva Sommaripa founded Eva's Garden in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, a place "so close to the ocean, she can smell the sea, so close to the woods she can talk to the trees." More than 50 year later she has grown a big green garden life of friends and neighbors, creatures that crawl, fly and slither, even microbes that create rich soil in the brown underground. Meet farmer Eva, and share the magic, beauty, and science of life on the farm and caring for the land.
Volunteer for Read ME Ag 2025
Volunteer readers sign up to read the selected book to one or more Pre-Kindergarten through 4th grade classrooms in Knox and/or Lincoln counties during Read ME Ag Week (March 17-21). This year's book is "Farmer Eva's Green Garden Life," written by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and illustrated by Christy Hale. The author grew up on a farm in Maine, and farmer Eva is a real farmer from Massachusetts..
Please register to volunteer by January 31, 2025, or sooner.
MAITC program Read ME Ag brings volunteer readers into classrooms (virtually or in-person) to read an agriculture-themed book. Teachers receive a copy of the book and the accompanying educator’s guide, with aligned classroom activities.
About Read ME Ag
Read "ME" Agriculture has reached more than 100,000 Maine students since 2008, and 700 classrooms annually. During Ag Week, volunteers read and give books about agriculture to Pre-Kindergarten through 4th grade classrooms. They tell the students about their farms, programs, or connections to agriculture and leave lessons and information for the teachers to use, all supplied by Maine Agriculture in the Classroom (MAITC).
Funding for this project is a direct result of the Maine agricultural specialty license plate and grants from USDA.